Investigating the Status of Public Libraries in Sanandaj City (Iran): Providing Services and Information Retrieval Tools

The purpose of present research has been to study the status of providing services and information retrieval tools in public libraries of Sanandaj City (Iran). This will reveal the weaknesses and strengths to be considered in future policies and programming of public libraries. The methodology of this research is of survey-descriptive type. The necessary data were collected through questionnaire for library clients (400 individuals), interview with libraries’ staff, observation, and statistics existing in the libraries. The findings indicated insufficient familiarity of the clients with responsibilities of public libraries, as well as their being incapable of using information retrieval tools, especially library software. Therefore, need to programming and providing better services locally and more effective policy-making by national institution of public libraries seems necessary, considering local needs.Originality/Value: Nowadays in analysis of social welfare criteria, the development level of public libraries is considered along with the criteria including habitation, education, employment, hygiene and treatment, and it is regarded as one of the criteria according to which a country is developed. On the other hand, information retrieval is the main function of libraries and is one of the symbols of their desired performance. Hence, quantitative and qualitative study of information retrieval tools and library services is of significance promotion of goals and mission of public libraries.